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In a stinging rebuff to the United Nations and its anti-poverty efforts, Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has told the world body that it wants out of its long-term development agreement because the U.N. makes the problem worse, not better.

The reason, given in a January 26 notification letter from the country’s powerful Finance Minister, obtained by Fox News, is that “aid only postpones the basic solutions to crucial development problems by tentatively ameliorating their manifestations without tackling their root causes. The structural, political, economic, etc. damage that it inflicts upon recipient countries is also enormous.” In other words, the government argues, U.N. aid does more harm than good.

Whether that critique, which echoes the complaints of many critics in wealthy donor countries, is the true reason behind the U.N.’s rejection is unclear. Fox News tried to contact the Eritrean finance ministry for further explanations, but was told that the finance minister, Berhane Abrehe, was “unavailable.”

For its part, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program, which coordinates U.N. activities in the small but strategically placed nation, said that the U.N. and the government “are currently discussing what are the best possible arrangements for post June 2011, taking into consideration the government’s recently-articulated priorities. No decisions have been taken.”

The Eritrean rebuff is another blow for the United Nations in a desperately poor and strife-ridden area of East Africa where the world organization has been struggling to maintain its presence, effectiveness and credibility.

about damn time...Africa is a shit hole largely due to to European actions on the continent, going all the way back to Portugal starting the slave trade and leading all the way up to today with the UN. glad one of the countries finally has the balls to tell them to get the hell out